We present the results of calculations of surface relaxations, energetics, and bonding properties for CaTiO3 (001) and (011) surfaces using a hybrid B3PW description of exchange and correlation. We consider both CaO and TiO2 terminations of the non-polar (001) surface, and Ca, TiO and O terminations of the polar (011) surface. On the (001) surfaces, we find that all upper-layer atoms relax inwards on the CaO-terminated surface, while outward relaxations of all atoms in the second layer are found for both terminations. For the TiO2-terminated (001) surface, the largest relaxations are on the second-layer atoms. The surface rumpling is much larger for the CaO-terminated than for the TiO2-terminated (001) surface, but their surface energies are quite similar at 0.94eV and 1.13eV respectively. In contrast, different terminations of the (011) CaTiO3 surface lead to very different surface energies of 1.86eV, 1.91eV, and 3.13eV for the O-terminated, Ca-terminated, and TiO-terminated (011) surface respectively. Our results for surface energies contrast sharply with those of Zhang et al. [Phys. Rev. B 76, 115426 (2007)], where the authors found a rather different pattern of surface energies. We predict a considerable increase of the Ti-O chemical bond covalency near the (011) surface as compared both to the bulk and to the (001) surface.
This paper presents a fast method for global search of atomic structures at ab initio level. The structures global optimization (SGO) engine consists of a high-efficiency differential evolution algorithm, accelerated local relaxation methods and an ultrafast plane-wave density functional theory code run on GPU machines. It can search the global-minimum configurations of crystals, two-dimensional materials and quantum clusters without symmetry restriction in a very short time (half or several hours). The engine is also able to search the energy landscape of a given system, which is useful for e…
An accurate prediction of atomic diffusion in Fe alloys is challenging due to thermal magnetic excitations and magnetic transitions. We propose an effcient approach to address these properties via Monte Carlo simulation, using ab-initio based effective interaction models. The temperature evolution of self- and Cu diffusion coeffcients in alpha-iron are successfully predicted, particularly the diffusion acceleration around the Curie point, which requires a quantum treatment of spins. We point out a dominance of magnetic disorder over chemical effects on diffusion in the very dilute systems.
The accuracy of a single s-orbital representation of Cu towards enabling multi-thousand atom ab initio calculations of electronic structure is evaluated in this work. If an electrostatic compensation charge of approximately 0.3 electrons per atom is used in this basis representation of copper, the electronic transmission in bulk and nanocrystalline Cu compares accurately to that obtained with a Double Zeta Polarized basis set. The use of this representation is analogous to the use of single band effective mass representation for semiconductor electronic structure. With a basis of just one s-or…
The ab initio calculation with the density functional theory and plane-wave bases is carried out for stepped Si(111)-2x1 surfaces that were predicted in a cleavage simulation by the large-scale (order-N) electronic structure theory (T. Hoshi, Y. Iguchi and T. Fujiwara, Phys. Rev. B72 (2005) 075323). The present ab initio calculation confirms the predicted stepped structure and its bias-dependent STM image. Moreover, two (meta)stable step-edge structures are found and compared. The investigation is carried out also for Ge(111)-2x1 surfaces, so as to construct a common understanding among elemen…
We present a first-principles computer code package (ABACUS) that is based on density functional theory and numerical atomic basis sets. Theoretical foundations and numerical techniques used in the code are described, with focus on the accuracy and transferability of the hierarchical atomic basis sets as generated using a scheme proposed by Chen, Guo and He [J. Phys.:Condens. Matter \textbf{22}, 445501 (2010)]. Benchmark results are presented for a variety of systems include molecules, solids, surfaces, and defects. All results show that the ABACUS package with its associated atomic basis sets…
Moving beyond traditional 2D materials is now desirable to have switching capabilities (e.g., transistors). Here we propose using borophene because, as we will show in this letter, obtaining regions of the electronic bandstructure which act as valence and conduction bands, with an apparent bandgap, may be obtainable in the foreseeable future. Here for particular allotropes of borophene, density of states (DOS) and electronic bandstructure diagrams with E(k) vs k are found with much improved accuracy by ab initio quantum calculations using hybrid functionals of several types. This procedure sho…
The PEO3:LiCF3SO3 polymer electrolyte has attracted significant research due to its enhanced stability at the lithium/polymer interface of high conductivity polymer batteries. Experimental studies have shown that, depending on the preparation conditions, both the PEO3:LiCF3SO3 crystalline complex and the PEO3:LiCF3SO3 amorphous phase can be formed. However, previous theoretical investigations focused on the short chain amorphous PEO3:LiCF3SO3 system. We report ab initio density-functional-theory calculations of crystalline PEO3:LiCF3SO3. The calculated results about the bonding configuration, …
The temperature-induced structural and electronic transformation in VO$_2$ between the monoclinic M1 and tetragonal rutile phases was studied by means of \textit{ab initio} molecular dynamics, based on density functional theory with Hubbard correction (DFT+U). Analysis of the dynamical processes associated with the structural transformation was carried out on the atomic scale by following the time evolution of dimerization amplitudes of vanadium atom chains and the twisting angle of vanadium dimers. The electronic transition was studied by tracing the changes in projected densities of states a…
We performed an {\it ab initio} investigation on the properties of rutile tin oxide (SnO$_{x}$) nanowires. We computed the wire properties determining the equilibrium geometries, binding energies and electronic band structures for several wire dimensions and surface facet configurations. The results allowed to establish scaling laws for the structural properties, in terms of the nanowire perimeters. The results also showed that the surface states control most of the electronic properties of the nanowires. Oxygen incorporation in the nanowire surfaces passivated the surface-related electronic s…
Electronic structure of FeGa3 has been studied using experiments and ab-initio calculations. Magnetization measurements show that FeGa3 is inherently diamagnetic in nature. Our studies indicate that the previously reported magnetic moment on the Fe atoms in FeGa3 is not an intrinsic property of FeGa3, but is primarily due to the presence of disorder, defects, grain boundaries etc that break the symmetry about the Fe dimers. Analysis of the results obtained from magnetic measurements, photoelectron spectroscopy, Fe K-edge X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy and ab-initio calculations clearl…
We have performed ab-initio calculations using plane-wave ultraviolet pseudopotential technique based on the density-functional theory (DFT) to study the structural, mechanical, electronic, optical and thermodynamic properties of orthorhombic MgV2O6. The calculated lattice parameters are in good agreement with the available experimental data. The second-order elastic constants and the other relevant quantities such as the Youngs modulus, shear modulus, Poissons ratio, compressibility, anisotropy factor, sound velocity, and Debye temperature have been calculated. After analyzing the calculated …
A modified core-to-valence band maximum approach is applied to calculate band offsets of strained III/V semiconductor hetero junctions. The method is used for the analysis of (In,Ga)As/GaAs/Ga(As,Sb) multi-quantum well structures. The obtained offsets and the resulting bandstructure are used as input for the microscopic calculation of photoluminescence spectra yielding very good agreement with recent experimental results.
There has been growing interest in perovskite BaSnO3 due to its desirable properties for oxide electronic devices including high electron mobility at room temperature and optical transparency. As these electronic and optical properties originate largely from the electronic structure of the material, here the basic electronic structure of epitaxially-grown BaSnO3 films is studied using high-energy-resolution electron energy-loss spectroscopy in a transmission electron microscope and ab initio calculations. This study provides a detailed description of the dielectric function of BaSnO3, includin…
The comparative study of structural, electronic properties, topology of the Fermi surface, and the features of chemical bonding in layered 1111-oxyarsenides LaRhAsO and LaIrAsO has been performed based on the results of ab initio modeling of their electronic structure. It was established that only weak sensitivity with respect both to electron and hole doping is expected for LaIrAsO being non-magnetic metal, however, the Rh-containing compound should be characterized with weak band magnetism, and the hole doping is expected to be able to move its ground state away from the boundary of magnetic…
Unmasking charge transfer in the Misfits: ARPES and ab initio prediction of electronic structure in layered incommensurate systems without artificial strain
We discover the detailed atomic structure of $d$-MgZnY, a stable decagonal quasicrystal alloy of the layered Frank-Kasper type, and related phases, using the "tiling and decoration" approach. The atoms have invariable sites in the rectangle and triangle tiles of a 10-fold-symmetric planar tiling. To discover the lowest-energy structures, we combine the methods of density functional theory (DFT) total energy calculations, empirical oscillating pair potentials (fitted to DFT), fitting effective Hamiltonians for tilings, and discovering optimum tiling structures using a nonlocal tile-reshuffling …
Using first principle calculations under the framework of density functional theory we have investigated the electronic structure, magnetism and ferroelectric polarization in the triangular lattice antiferromagnet AgFeO2, and its comparison to the isostructural system CuFeO2. Our calculations reveal that spin orbit interaction plays an important role in determining the magnetic property of AgFeO2 and is possibly responsible for its different magnetic ground state in comparison to CuFeO2. Calculations of ferroelectric polarization of AgFeO2 suggest that the spontaneous polarization arises from …
An ab initio study of the electronic structures of solid metallotetrabenzoporphyrins (MTBPs) utilized in organic transistors and photovoltaics is presented. Bandstructures, densities of states, and orbitals are calculated for H2, Cu, Ni, and Zn core substitutions of the unit cell of solid TBP, as deposited via soluble precursors that are thermally annealed to produce polycrystalline, semiconducting thin-films. While the unit cells of the studied MTBPs are nearly isomorphous, substitution of the core atoms alters the structure of the bands around the energy bandgap and the composition of the de…
The structural, electronic, mechanical and thermal properties of Ir$_{1-x}$Rh$_{x}$ alloys were studied systematically using ab initio density functional theory at different concentrations (x = 0.00, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.00). A Special Quasirandom Structure method was used to make alloys having FCC structure with four atoms per unit cell. The ground state properties such as lattice constant and bulk modulus were calculated to find the equilibrium atomic position for stable alloys. The calculated ground state properties are in good agreement with the experimental and previously presented other t…
Semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides present a complex electronic band structure with a rich orbital contribution to their valence and conduction bands. The possibility to consider the electronic states from a tight-binding model is highly useful for the calculation of many physical properties, for which first principle calculations are more demanding in computational terms when having a large number of atoms. Here, we present a set of Slater-Koster parameters for a tight-binding model that accurately reproduce the structure and the orbital character of the valence and conduction ba…
We present a first-principles study of the structural, electronic, and optical properties of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H). To this end, atomic configurations of a-Si:H with 72 and 576 atoms respectively are generated using molecular dynamics. Density functional theory calculations are then applied to these configurations to obtain the electronic wave functions. These are analyzed and characterized with respect to their localization and their contribution to the density of states, and are used for calculating ab-initio absorption spectra of a-Si:H. The results show that both the size…
From DFT based calculations establishing energy-volume equations of state and electron localization mapping, the electronic structure and crystal chemistry changes from Sn2TiO4 to Sn2TiO6 by oxidation are rationalized; the key effect being the destabilization of divalent tin SnII towards tetravalent state SnIV leading to rutile Sn2TiO6 as experimentally observed. The subsequent electronic structure change is highlighted in the relative change of the electronic band gap which increases from ~1eV up to 2.2 eV and the 1.5 times increase of the bulk modulus assigned to the change from covalently S…
The split silicon-vacancy defect (SiV) in diamond is an electrically and optically active color center. Recently, it has been shown that this color center is bright and can be detected at the single defect level. In addition, the SiV defect shows a non-zero electronic spin ground state that potentially makes this defect an alternative candidate for quantum optics and metrology applications beside the well-known nitrogen-vacancy color center in diamond. However, the electronic structure of the defect, the nature of optical excitations and other related properties are not well-understood. Here w…
The electronic properties of the twisted InSe bilayer are studied by large-scale density functional theory. Spectral Function Unfolding reveals that the electronic structure of the twisted system can be described in terms of a combination of features of the bandstructures of the aligned InSe bilayer with different stacking configurations, enabling predictions of the band gap and the effective mass for holes. The effective mass for holes in the twisted InSe bilayer is shown to be influenced primarily by the interlayer distance. The intralayer and interlayer exciton binding energies are thus cal…
Based on ab initio density functional theory, we have investigated a microscopic mechanism that leads to Fe$^{2+}_{B}$/Fe$^{3+}_{B}$ dimerization and consequent ferroelectricity in charge ordered Fe$_{3}$O$_{4}$ with $P2$ symmetry. In addition to the simple inter-site Coulomb repulsion, quantum hybridization effects are invoked to explain the Fe$^{2+}_{B}$/Fe$^{3+}_{B}$ bond dimerization. Our results, based on the generalized gradient approximation + Hubbard $U$ (GGA+$U$) method, indicate that noncentrosymmetric $P2$ magnetite shows a finite and sizeable ferroelectric polarization along the $b…
Ab initio study of semiconducting carbon nanotubes adsorbed on the Si(100) surface: diameter- and registration-dependent atomic configurations and electronic properties
We use ab initio density functional calculations to determine the interaction of a graphene monolayer with the Si(111) surface. We found that graphene forms strong bonds to the bare substrate and accommodates the 12% lattice mismatch by forming a wavy structure consisting of free-standing conductive ridges that are connected by ribbon-shaped regions of graphene, which bond covalently to the substrate. We perform quantum transport calculations for different geometries to study changes in the transport properties of graphene introduced by the wavy structure and bonding to the Si substrate. Our r…
Full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave method with the generalized gradient approximation for the exchange-correlation potential was applied for comparative study of elastic and electronic properties of six cubic thorium pnictides ThPn and Th3Pn4, where Pn = P, As, and Sb. Optimized lattice parameters, theoretical density, independent elastic constants (Cij), bulk moduli (B), shear moduli (G), Young's moduli (Y), and Poisson's ratio (ν) were obtained for the first time and analyzed in comparison with available theoretical and experimental data. The electronic band structures, total and…
Since the pioneering efforts of Duwez and coworkers in 1965, when a solid amorphous phase of Pd-Si ($a$-PdSi) was obtained in the vicinity of the eutectic concentration, much work has been done. However, some points related to the atomic structures remain to be systematized. In this work, 8 amorphous Pd$_{100-c}$Si$_{c}$ alloys (c = 2.5, 5, 10, 13.34, 15, 17.5, 20, and 22 at %) were generated by molecular dynamics $ab$ $initio$ simulations; the short-range structure is analyzed using several correlation functions, like Pair Distribution Functions, reduced Pair Distribution Functions, Plane Ang…
We present a detailed ab-initio study of semi-classical transport in n-ZnSe using Rode's iterative method. Inclusion of ionized impurity, piezoelectric, acoustic deformation and polar optical phonon scattering and their relative importance at low and room temperature for various n-ZnSe samples are discussed in depth. We have clearly noted that inelastic polar optical phonon scattering is the most dominant scattering mechanism over most of the temperature region. Our results are in good agreement with the experimental data for the mobility and conductivity obtained at different doping concentra…
We present accurate many-body results of the electronic densities in several solid materials, including Si, NaCl, and Cu. These results are obtained using the ab initio auxiliary-field quantum Monte Carlo (AFQMC) method working in a plane-wave basis with norm-conserving, multiple-projector pseudopotentials. AFQMC has been shown to be an excellent many-body total energy method. Computation of observables and correlation functions other than the ground-state energy requires back-propagation, whose adaption and implementation in the plane-wave basis AFQMC framework are discussed in the present pa…
The interaction between electrons and lattice vibrations determines key physical properties of materials, including their electrical and heat transport, excited electron dynamics, phase transitions, and superconductivity. We present a new ab initio method that employs atomic orbital (AO) wavefunctions to compute the electron-phonon (e-ph) interactions in materials and interpolate the e-ph coupling matrix elements to fine Brillouin zone grids. We detail the numerical implementation of such AO-based e-ph calculations, and benchmark them against direct density functional theory calculations and W…
We report on a theoretical study of the electronic, optical and magneto-optical properties of digital ferromagnetic hetero-structures based on $Mn$ $δ$--doped $GaAs$. We consider different structures corresponding to $Mn$ contents within the range 12-50\% and we study how the system changes as a function of the doping concentration. Our first--principles approach includes the spin-orbit interaction in a fully relativistic pseudopotential scheme and the local fields effect in the description of the optical absorption. We show that $Mn$ $δ$-doped $GaAs$ shares many properties with the uniformly …
Using first-principles calculations, the structural, elastic and electronic properties of MoAlB have been investigated for the first time. The optimized lattice constants exhibit fair agreement with the experimental values. The computed elastic constants satisfy the mechanical stability conditions for the MoAlB. The Mo-based boride MoAlB is elastically anisotropic and can be classified as brittle material. This boride is expected to show reasonable thermal conductivity due to its high Debye temperature of 693 K. The metallic electrical conductivity of this compound is predicted from the electr…
An empirical multiorbital (spd) tight binding (TB) model including magnetism and spin-orbit coupling is applied to calculations of magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) in CoPt L1_0 structure. A realistic Slater-Koster parametrisation for single-element transition metals is adapted for the ordered binary alloy. Spin magnetic moment and density of states are calculated using a full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave (LAPW) ab initio method and our TB code with different variants of the interatomic parameters. Detailed mutual comparison of this data allows for determination of a subset of the …
Hybrid halide perovskites are currently under intense investigation due to their potential applications in optoelectronics and solar cells. Among them, MAPbI$_3$ where MA stands for the methylammonium cation, exhibits ideal properties for solar cells. In attempt to identify new lead-free halide perovskites we have studied using \textit{ab-initio} electronic structure calculations in conjunction with hybrid functionals a series of MABX$_3$ compounds where B is a divalent cation and X a halogen atom. Our results suggest that the compounds under study exhibit a variety of lattice constants and en…
Halide perovskites are currently under intense investigation due to their potential applications in optoelectronics and solar cells. Among them several crystallize in low symmetry lattice structures like trigonal, hexagonal, orthorhombic and monoclinic. Employing \textit{ab-initio} electronic structure calculations in conjunction with generalized gradient approximation and hybrid functionals we study a series of perovskites with the formula A$_3$B$_2$X$_9$ which have been grown experimentally. A stands for a monovalent cation like Cs, Rb, K or the organic methylammonium molecule (MA), B is Sb …
Structural, electronic, and optical properties for the cubic, tetragonal, and monoclinic crystalline phases of ZrO2, as derived from it ab initio full-relativistic calculations, are presented. The electronic structure calculations were carried out by means of the all-electron full potential linear augmented plane wave method, within the framework of the density functional theory and the local density approximation. The calculated carrier effective masses are shown to be highly anisotropic. The results obtained for the real and imaginary parts of the dielectric function, the reflectivity, and t…
The structural, electronic, mechanical and thermodynamic properties of (Ti1-xMox)2AlC (0 < x < 0.20) were explored via density functional theory. The obtained lattice constants agree well with the experimental values. The electronic band structure confirms the metallic nature. Strengthening of covalent bonds due to Mo substitution is confirmed from the study of band structure, electronic density of states and charge density mapping. The elastic constants satisfy the mechanical stability criteria. Strengthening of covalent bonds leads to enhanced mechanical properties. (Ti1-xMox)2AlC compounds …
Effect of 3d Transition Metal Doping (Mn, Fe, Co, Ni) on the Electronic and Magnetic Properties of Pd Alloys at Low Impurity Concentrations: An Ab initio Study
